Kresley Cole's #1 debut in the Young Adult world is a rave for months now! I stumbled upon Cole's Poison Princess in a poll for whom the award for Best Young Adult Book 2012 will be given too. May contain spoilers, so be warned.It was Christmas break (2012) when I decided to read this book. Okay, before I delve into the wonders and mystique of this book, let me first share you what it is about: (taken from Kresley Cole's website)
22 Arcana cards. 22 Chosen Teens. Let the cards fall where they may. Sixteen-year-old Evie Greene’s horrific hallucinations predicted the apocalypse, and the end of the world brought her all sorts of new powers. With the earth scorched and few survivors, Evie teams up with handsome and dangerous Jack Deveaux in a race to find answers. They discover that that an ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of teens have been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side…
Evie, the protagonist in the story gets these apocalyptic visions. With no one to talk to she decides to draw them. She can't even tell her own mother because she spent a good summer in an institution! What a way for the popular girl in school to spend summer, so it stayed a secret. She then meets Jackson Deveaux. Am I the only one who loves repeating his last name? Deveaux. Anyway, Evie calls him Jack. And as always... Jack is the bad boy. Like seriously THE bad boy! No doubt about that after reading the book! Wait, why did I even put as always there? Because I must have fallen in love with Jack. Ahh... figures. You guys! You gotta read the book before continuing on this post!!! But if not... then go ahead...
The story about their high school life went on for several chapters. Literally! I was ready to give up because I really thought there would be apocalyptic things, but alas... half-way through the book, it finally happened. I was thinking, why would the author drag on the story for that long, and only to get rid of A LOT of characters in the end. When I finished the book, I thought the first half did make sense, the series is a chronicle, so they have to document pretty much every thing that happens, right? Makes me think that Evie's best friend and ex-boyfriend are alive, but that's impossible now isn't it?
I saw Evie as an annoying brat throughout the first half of the book. She was just an annoying character to begin with. I don't know if it's just me or I have something against popular kids (that just means I was unpopular to begin with in the real world) but seriously though, why didn't she do anything about her visions? Well, it was part of the story so I had to trek through the cornfield and kept on reading. Then it happened. One thing you would want to know about me is that I really reading action scenes. I love it when authors find the perfect descriptive words for a scene.
I'm going to fast forward a bit...
I'm telling you, I didn't expect any of the events and things that happened in the story at all. Well, maybe for the part about Jack coming back for Evie, and his accent. Zombies... or aliens?? I'm not really sure. I'm always up for anything when it comes to zombies. In a way, her visions did give her an advantage. They eventually led her to the other characters in the Arcana. The Tarot Cards. This is the first book I've encountered which evolves around the Tarot Cards. I am not an expert when it comes to tarot cards, because I've only known those cards in the occult (blame all the horror films I've seen throughout my childhood, but kept me interested). So in the Arcana Chronicles, the author is using the Major Arcana (the Trump cards), which consists of 22 cards, hence 22 teens. In Poison Princess, they already introduced four of them. Jack believed that Evie has some kind of powers and more than what she is now. But, what's going to happen when he eventually witnesses how powerful Evie is?
And for that... we have to wait for book two!
So, about Jack. I hate how he acts so bad but deep inside he's actually this strong and sensible guy who speaks Cajun. That night when they celebrated Evie's party, they had a moment there and the scene really pulled me in the book. Then he tries to make Evie jealous right after he failed to make her his that night in the pool. I also hate how he's such an asshole, a jerk, and all a bad-boy could ever be described to Evie! Although he's like that, I am betting he has fallen in love with Evie. Seriously!
Evie's character really build up throughout the story. I really like the ending part of this book. I was blown away by the originality of the story.
Overall I give the book 4 out of 5 star ratings. Taking one out because of that pre-apocalyptic episode in Evie's life. It was too long for me. The rest is all greatness could ever be! Can't wait for book 2!
Any comments or questions, let me know! You might want to ask a specific question because I tend to be a confuzzled (confused and puzzling) person when blogging about something. Everything just pours in. :D
